Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Audio players can be situated in distinct regions of a home or other structure to provide playback in such distinct regions. Each of the audio players can have its own amplifier(s) and one or more speakers and typically installed in one place. For instance, one audio player system can be situated in a living room, while another is in a bedroom. Thus, separate regions/zones of the home can have separate audio players to playback from the same or different audio sources. To playback an audio source, the audio source is provided locally at each audio player, such as via the Internet, local network server, attached storage, external analog audio input, a compact disc or a radio broadcast, etc. Thus, each room can provide the same or different audio content by separately controlling the separate audio player systems. In some examples, a single audio player system can include hardwired speakers in multiple rooms so as to create a unified audio environment in otherwise acoustically separated rooms. For example, ceiling mounted speakers may be provided throughout a home to play audio content from a single source of audio content.
Digital audio players can be configured to playback audio content from a digital source of audio content, such as a digital media file. Digital audio players can be a portable digital music player, a stationary audio-video receiver, a television, or a computer, and digital media files can be stored locally on such devices or can be stored on a remote server that streams digital media files via the Internet.